Preference settings can help you mitigate privacy threats and control the disclosure of personal information. For example, document metadata may contain the author's name and contact information. To help ensure a high level of privacy, we recommend that users edit or remove any author and contact information that is associated with documents.
There are no administrative settings that allow you to enforce security preferences that you specify. Even if you set and deploy security preferences, users can change these preferences at a later time. Therefore, if you are deploying security settings as part of your organization's policy, you must educate your users about the risks associated with changing default settings.
Configure privacy options as recommended in the following table:
Privacy option | Description |
|---|---|
Customer Experience Improvement Program | If you choose to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), which is a recommended best practice, Microsoft collects anonymous feedback including application usage patterns and the hardware configuration of the user's system. By default, users are not enrolled in CEIP and they are not required to participate in the program. Note Microsoft does not collect your name, address, or any other personally identifiable information when you participate in CEIP. |
Document metadata that contains user information | If users share copies of an Excel workbook or a Word document, they should review any personal and hidden information and decide whether it is appropriate to include. Users can configure personal information removal in the Office 2008 Preference settings. Note Removing personal information affects the following areas:
|
 | Maximize protection for private and personal information in the Office 2008 release |
| Maximize protection for private and personal information in Word 2008 |
| Maximize protection for private and personal information in Excel 2008 |
| Maximize protection for private and personal information in PowerPoint 2008 |
